John hendba and william gooding



' (N0 Mddel.) I Y J. HENDR'A 8v W. GOODING. .T'READ 0F ST'AIRSQDOORSTEPS; MATS,-&c.

No. 364,717. Patented June :14; 1887..

UNITE STATES;

PATENT OFFICE.

JoHN HENDRA AND WILLIAM eoomNc, on HOLLOWVAY, COUNTY or MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND.

TREAD OF STAIRS, DOOR-STEPS, MATS, 80c.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 364,717, dated June 14, 1887.

. Application filed October 11,1886. Serial No. 215,825. (No model.) Patented in England January 6,1886, No, 229.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, J OHN HENDRA, ironfounder, of 54. FreegroveRoad, Holloway, and WILLIAM GOODING, builder, of 11 North Road, Holloway, both in the county of Middlesex and in the Kingdom of Great Britain, have invented certain new and useful Improvements called An Improved Construction of Treads of Stairs, Door-Steps, Mats, Landings, Floorlngs, and other similar wearing-surfaces and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, c1ear,'and exact description thereof.

Our lnvention relates to an improved method of constrnctingthe treads of stairs, steps, mats,

landings, floorings, and other similar wearingsurfaces; and it consists in making the wearing surfaces out of small disconnected blocks of the same size and shape, which are held down by means of flanges projecting from their lower edges between two plates,'which together form a frame and through perforations in the top plate of which the blocks project. The blocks, the surfaces of which form the practicable face of the tread or mat, are therefore interchange- .able, and their relative positions can be changed by simply opening the frame and making the desired rearrangement-e. 9., moving the partially-worn blocks from the middle of the tread or mat to the ends or corners and the blocks therefrom to the middle, replacing, if necessary, the blocks which are quite worn out by new ones and reclosing the frame. These blocksare made of india-rubber, wood, or other suitable material, and the plates may be made of metal or wood. We do not confine ourselves to any particular material.

We will now proceed to describe our invention in detail, referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like parts are marked with the same reference-letter. a

Figure l'is a perspective view illustrating the application of our invention to an ordinary staircase. Fig. 2 is a plan of part of a staircase-tread fitted with our invention, and Fig; 3 an end elevation of the same. Fig. 4

the blocks 0 to pass through them. These perforations D are shown (as are the blocks) in the drawings as square in plan, although we would have it distinctly understood that our invention does notlimit us to this shape. Any shape (in point of plan) may be adopted, according to the suggestions or fancy, or the conveniences of manufacture; but in any given piece of work--for instance, fitting our invention to all the stairs of a large railwaystation-all the blocks would be uniform in size and shape. The front edge of the top plate, B, is advantageously extended into a nosing, E.

When our invention is to be applied to other purposes than that illustrated and described above, the shape of the bottom plate is naturally modified accordinglyf In making our invention as a mat the plate would be made like a tray and the nosing E dispensed with. In each of the several applications of which our invention is capable the particular shape of the plates A and B will be modified accordingl y, the remaining featu res-those of the inventionbeing constant throughout all.

The blocks 0 consist of three parts-the face 0, which may be serrated (as for a mat) or made in small pyramids, as illustrated, the body 0, and the flange O". The blocks and the plateA may be perforated when made for staircase work to allow of the passage of light. They may be made with any desired amount of projection above the top plate and the perforations D arranged to produce any desired design.

Having now particularly described and In testimony that we claim the foregoing we ascertained the nature of our said invention, have hereunto set our hands this 24th day of find in what manner the same is to be per- September, 1886.

ormed, we declare that what we claim is- 7 5 Treads, mats, landings, floorings, and the like consisting of pairs of plates, the top plates perforated with perforations of thesame In presence of-- shape and size throughout to receive the pro- ERNEST MANDER, 4

jecting bodies of blocks of the saineshape and 61Brompionflquare, S. W., Stock-Brokaw? Clerk. [0 size as the perforations, substantially as de- HERBERT RIDGW'AY,

scribed with reference to the accompanying Nofarys Clerk, 1.) Change Alley, Oornhill L. 0.,

figures. London. 

